Paul Pierre Cayard (born May 19, 1959) is an American

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

sman and professional sailor. He has competed at multiple world championship level

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...

events, including the

America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...

, the

Whitbread Round the World Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

, the

Volvo Ocean Race The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...

and the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. In 1998 he was selected as the US Rolex Yachtsmen of the Year. He has won seven world championships, twice participated in the Olympic Games and seven times in the America's Cup. In 2011 he was elected into the US Sailing Hall of Fame.

Biography

Paul Cayard was born in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He began sailing in 1967, at the age of eight. He graduated in 1981, with a degree in Business Management from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. He speaks three languages:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, French and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

. He enjoys flying and holds a pilots certification with instrument rating for single engine aircraft. Of all his sailing accomplishments, he counts his 1988 Star Class World Championship as his most prized victory. Currently, Cayard serves as Executive Director of the US Olympic Sailing Team. From 2019-2020, he served as Chairman of the Board for St. Francis Yacht Club. He is an ambassador for Rolex, the One Ocean Foundation and Vice President of the International Star Class. Cayard is a member of four international yacht clubs; St. Francis Yacht Club, San Francisco Yacht Club, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and Yacht Club de Monaco.

Sailing career

From an early age Cayard showed great promise as a sailor and by his early teens was successfully sailing high performance dinghies such as the International 505 and Laser. As Cayard grew and became more proficient in sailing, he gained the notice of

Tom Blackaller Thomas David Blackaller, Jr. (January 6, 1940 – September 7, 1989) was a world-champion American yachtsman, America's Cup helmsman, sailmaker, and racecar competitor. He was a two-time world champion in the Star class keelboat, a world champio ...

who invited Cayard to crew for him on his Star class sailboat. Blackaller would become an influential mentor and the Star Class would become a lifelong passion for Cayard. In 1984, Cayard was selected as an alternate in the

for the USA sailing team. Sailing in the Star Class, he won the silver medal at the pre-Olympic regatta in 2003, going on to finish 5th at the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. Cayard has competed in a broad range of ocean racing events with an impressive record. He won the 1994 Kenwood Cup, the 1994 and 1996 Sardinia Cup and the 1995

Admirals Cup The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing. The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbe ...

. His top achievement in this arena was becoming the first American to win the Whitbread Round the World in 1997-1998 as skipper of

EF Language ''EF Language'' (also known as ''Illbruck'', ''Magnavox 2UE'', ''Nokia 2UE'', ''Nokia'', ''DHL'') is a Volvo Ocean 60 yacht that won the 1997–98 Whitbread Round the World Race. Career ''EF Language'' was designed by Bruce Farr and built b ...

. He beat out ten other yachts for the prize over a course of 32,000 miles (51,500 km). In 2005-2006, Cayard competed in the Volvo Ocean Race as skipper of the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' syndicate sponsored by

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

in reference to the movie of the same name. Cayard Sailing Inc. managed the team which won the final leg into Gothenburg to finish the overall race in 2nd place. In 2007, Paul Cayard and Russell Coutts announced the launch of the World Sailing League in partnership with internationally renowned Portuguese sports promoter, João Lagos. The World Sailing League (WSL) was to have been held at premier sailing locations around the world with the series winner receiving $2 million in prize money. In 2009, Cayard joined

Artemis Racing Artemis Racing is a professional sailing team founded in 2006 by businessman and sailor Torbjörn Törnqvist, named after Artemis, the ancient Greek goddess. Timeline * 2007: won the MedCup circuit, then called Breitling Medcup, and the TP52 Wo ...

owned by

Torbjörn Törnqvist Torbjörn Törnqvist (born 1953) is a Swedish billionaire, and the CEO and co-founder of Gunvor (company), Gunvor, "one of the largest commodities conglomerates in the world", with the Russian billionaire, Gennady Timchenko. Early life Törnqvis ...

. Cayard was the Skipper of the Louis Vuitton Trophy team and Tactician onboard TP52 Artemis (www.artemisracing.com).

became the Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup in 2010 and Cayard was CEO.

America's Cup

Cayard's first

was in 1983 aboard Tom Blackaller's ''Defender'' as a jib trimmer. ''Defender'' finished third in the defender selection series. For the

1987 America's Cup The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-sixth challenge for the America's Cup. The American challenger '' Stars & Stripes 87'', sailed by Dennis Conner, beat the Australian defender '' Kookaburra III'', sailed by Iain Murray, in a four-race swee ...

series, Cayard moved up to tactician and alternate helmsman on Blackaller's new boat ''USA'', which lost out to

Dennis Conner Dennis Walter Conner (born September 16, 1942) is an American yachtsman. He is noted for winning a bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and three wins in the America's Cup. Sailing career Conner was born September ...

's ''Stars & Stripes'' for the right to challenge for the cup. For the

1992 America's Cup The 28th America's Cup was contested between the winner of the 1992 Citizen Cup defender selection series, America³, and the winner of the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger selection series, Il Moro di Venezia. It was the first edition of t ...

, Cayard was manager and skipper of '' Il Moro di Venezia'' from Italy, a syndicate backed by

Raul Gardini Raul Gardini (June 7, 1933 – July 23, 1993) was an Italian agri-business and chemicals tycoon. In 1980 he took the helm of his father-in-law Serafino Ferruzzi's family business, starting an aggressive campaign that led to the acquisition of ...

. In 1991, he won the first ever

International America's Cup Class The International Americas Cup Class is a class of racing yacht that was developed for the America's Cup between 1992 and 2007. These yachts, while not identical, were all designed to the same formula to offer designers the freedom to experiment ...

world championship. Over the months long challenger selection series, Cayard's team beat out seven other teams from six other countries to win the

1992 Louis Vuitton Cup The 3rd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in San Diego, United States in 1992. The winner, Il Moro di Venezia, went on to challenge for the 1992 America's Cup. The teams Eight challengers from seven nations contested the 1992 Louis Vuitton Cup. Toget ...

and gain the right to challenge for the America's Cup. Part of the challenge included protests where Cayard successfully protested the employment of a bowsprit on the New Zealand challenge. Though ''Il Moro di Venezia'' was outclassed in the America's Cup races by the faster ''

America³ ''America'' (pronounced "America Cubed") is the name of both a syndicate that vied for the America's Cup in 1992 and 1995 and its boats. 1992 Cup victory The program was operated by Bill Koch and Harry "Buddy" Melges in the 1992 America's Cup ...

'', Cayard's expertise in sailing provided some memorable moments. In the second race of the series, his yacht won the start and maintained a small lead for the entire race. He employed classic match racing tactics throughout the race and at the downwind finish managed to beat ''America³'' by three seconds, producing what was at the time the smallest winning margin in America's Cup history. Il Moro however, went on to lose this series 4–1. In 1995, Cayard joined an American effort for the America's Cup with Team Dennis Conner '' Stars & Stripes'' as primary helmsman. Though ''Stars & Stripes'' was noticeably slower than other boats on the defender series, the syndicate managed to win the

1995 Citizen Cup The 1995 Citizen Cup was the defender selection series regatta for the 1995 America's Cup, held in the United States. Three defense syndicates (featuring four IACC yachts) competed over four round robins and a semi-finals series in order earn ...

for the right to defend the Cup. In an unprecedented move, Team Dennis Conner decided to use the faster yacht '' Young America'' from the PACT 95 syndicate to defend the Cup. Cayard and this syndicate ended up losing the Cup 5–0 to

Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup in ...

, who had won the

1995 Louis Vuitton Cup The 4th Louis Vuitton Cup was held in San Diego, United States in 1995. The winner, Team New Zealand, went on to challenge for and win the 1995 America's Cup. The teams Originally ten challengers from seven nations submitted bids to compete for t ...

. With the change in venue and hemisphere for the Cup, the next America's Cup was not held until 2000. For the

2000 America's Cup The 30th America's Cup was won by Team New Zealand, who swept the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup winner Prada Challenge in all five races. It was the first America's Cup without an American challenger or defender. Races Crew Team New Zealand * Sail ...

, Cayard formed his own syndicate with backing from a number of sponsors and named it '' AmericaOne''. The sponsoring yacht club was St. Francis Yacht Club of San Francisco. This syndicate competed against 14 challengers from 10 nations for the right to challenge for the Cup. ''AmericaOne'' reached the finals of the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup racing against ''Prada'' for the right to challenge against

for the 2000 America's Cup. The final over the best of nine races was hotly contested, with neither yacht ever winning by more than two minutes. ''Prada'' won the first race, and ''AmericaOne'' the second. ''Prada'' went on to win the next two races, putting ''AmericaOne'' at a 3-1 disadvantage. ''AmericaOne'' then proceeded to win the next three races in a row and appeared on the brink of winning the Louis Vuitton Cup. However, equipment fatigue and failure proved decisive, several spinnakers were blown out, and ''Prada'' ended up winning the next two races and the series, 5–4, earning the right to challenge for the Cup. Prada ultimately lost in the America's Cup, 5–0 to the defender Team New Zealand. Following the conclusion of the 2000 America's Cup, Cayard recommended to the ''AmericaOne'' syndicate board of trustees that the syndicate should not compete for the

2003 America's Cup The 31st America's Cup was contested between the holder, Team New Zealand, and the winner of the 2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, Alinghi. Build Up The 2002–2003 Louis Vuitton Cup, held in the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland, New Zealand saw nine teams fro ...

, citing significant financial and recruiting obstacles. Assets of AmericaOne were eventually sold to

Larry Ellison Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...

who founded the Oracle Racing syndicate, later joining forces with BMW Racing to form

Oracle BMW Racing Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club. ...

, with Cayard as skipper. Cayard later was moved out of the skipper position into an administrative position and ultimately left the syndicate. In March 2007, Cayard was involved in the

2007 America's Cup The 2007 America's Cup was the thirty-second challenge for the America's Cup and was won by Alinghi in the 7th race. The Cup is the most famous and most prestigious regatta and ''Match Race'' in the sport of sailing. As per the Deed of Gift o ...

as Technical Advisor to Desafio Espanol 2007. Cayard also commentated on the

2007 Louis Vuitton Cup The 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup held in Valencia, Spain, from April 16 to June 6 was the event used to select the challenger for the 2007 America's Cup. Eleven potential challengers competed in the competition which consisted of two round robins, ...

and on the

for

La7 La7 is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned by Cairo Communication. Until 2013 it was a pay-per-view channel owned by Telecom Italia Media and operated by Telecom Italia. Signal overspill means that parts of Albania, Croatia, Swi ...

, the Italian broadcast rights holder. On 12 October 2007, Cayard announced that he was joining Desafio Espanol as Sports Director for the 33rd America's Cup. For the 33rd America's Cup, Cayard provided commentary for Eurosport and in 2009 joined Torbjorn Tornqvist's sailing on Artemis Racing for the TP52 and Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas. Cayard also helmed RC44 Katusha on the RC44 Championship Tour from 2010–2012. For the 34th America's Cup, Cayard was the CEO of Artemis Racing, the Challenger of Record. In 2020, Paul Cayard was the first sailor to be inducted into the Class of 2020 for the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame, (BASHOF)

Achievements

* Won the El Toro class North American championship in the under 18 category in 1975. * Won the Star class world championship in 1988. * Won the Maxi class world championship in 1988 aboard ''Il Moro di Venezia III''. * Won the 1989 One Ton class world championship. * Won the 1991 50-foot world championship aboard ''Abracadabra'' in Japan. * 1991 Yachting magazine Yachtsman of the Year. * Won the Louis Vuitton Cup in 1992. * 1992

Rothmans Rothmans may refer to: * Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, a Canadian tobacco company * Rothmans International, a former British tobacco manufacturer, founded by Louis Rothman See also * Rothman, a surname * Rothmans 12 hours, a series of sports car ra ...

Yachtsman of the Year. * Won the Citizens Cup in 1995 for the right to defend the America's Cup. * Won 1994 and 1996 Sardinia Cup (ocean racing) * Won 1994 Kenwood Cup (ocean racing) * Won the 1995 Admiral's Cup (ocean racing) * Won the 1996 International Level Class 40 world championship. * Won the 1999 Steinlager Cup. * Won the 1997/98 Whitbread Round the World Race (now known as the

) as skipper of the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

entry EF Language. * 1998

Rolex Rolex SA () is a British-founded Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1905 as ''Wilsdorf and Davis'' by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, the company registered ''Rolex'' as the brand name of ...

Yachtsman of the Year. * Won 2002 IMS world championship in

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...

, Italy. * 2005-2006 Skippered 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in the Volvo Ocean Race, placing 2nd overall. * Tactician on board John Kilroy's ''Samba Pa Ti'', winner of the

Farr 40 The Farr 40 is a 40-foot one-design sailboat designed by Farr Yacht Design in 1996 following after the Mumm 30. It was originally designed as a one design class but had some compromises in design to rate under the International Measurement Syst ...

North American Championships 2004, US National Championships 2004, Pacific Coast Championships 2004, and West Coast Season Championships 2004. * 2010 Became CEO of Artemis Racing, Challenger of Record for the 34th America's Cup, which is backed by Torbjörn Tornqvist. * 2011 Inducted into the

National Sailing Hall of Fame The National Sailing Hall of Fame is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes sailing and racing by recognizing individuals who have contributed to the sport, highlighting sailing's contribution to the American culture; and demonstrating i ...

in San Diego, CA. * 2018 Star World Championship, Bronze * 2019 Inducted into Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame

References

Record of world championships won

External links

*
''AmericaOne'' website
* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cayard, Paul 1959 births American male sailors (sport) Artemis Racing sailors Living people Oracle Racing sailors Il Moro Challenge sailors Sailors at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Star Star class world champions US Sailor of the Year Volvo Ocean Race sailors 1983 America's Cup sailors 1987 America's Cup sailors 1992 America's Cup sailors 1995 America's Cup sailors 2000 America's Cup sailors 2003 America's Cup sailors 2013 America's Cup sailors World champions in sailing for the United States San Francisco State University alumni Olympic sailors of the United States